I love buttons. Buttons are super versatile for crafting and can often be pretty cute. Whenever I go to a craft fair I hunt down buttons. though I often end up never using most of them. This has resulted in having more buttons than I know what do with.

Maybe a 1/4 of all my currently unused buttons.

What I really love using buttons for is jewellery. I bought a button/bead bracelet at a fair one day and used it to inspire my own work which has resulted in the most use of my buttons and charms so far. The only problem I’ve been having with this particular style is that they rotate on the wrist when being worn. Sad times.

My most recent bracelet.

But I really do love these bracelets. They’re so pretty and easy to make. Also, I can now go to craft fairs and pick up lots of charms knowing that they’ll definitely be used. =]

As for the buttons, I have a new use for them. I’ve been feeling quite restless recently what with the end of this year of university. I’m currently in the lull between constant studying/pretending to study and being able to fill my days productively and enjoyably. Really, I’ve been wanting to make something but my Yellow Moon package was still in the mail and I was stuck on what to do. Then a few nights ago I was looking for some inspiration on the internet and was struck with an interesting idea. Button rings! Obviously been done before but I was looking forward to see what I could create.

As you can see, the ribbon works as the basis for the ring. This immediately solves the problem I have with poking or wrongly fitted wires. Ribbon is much kinder to my accident-prone fingers. =P

So now I have a small collection of button rings in different colours, currently experimenting with flower designs and also had the good fortune of having a pretty groovy moon button. Gotta love the random bags! I actually really love the moon button I only wish I could make the ribbon a little more subtle. I tried blue to match the background but it obscured the moon. So sheer yellow it is!

The flower button I wish I could wear more often but I really don’t wear enough green or yellow for it to go with. What I would also like to do is create flower ring with green ribbon and fashion a leaf effect. However, it requires the top button to have 4 holes which is unfortunately uncommon.

Oh well, it’s nice to have a new design. I really like showing off my new button rings. Very statement, incredibly simple and a great way to use up my buttons. If there’s something I can say with confidence, it’s that I have Alot of buttons.

[Edit:] Of course, the day after I post this entry, my craftyribbons parcel arrives! thanks to their awesome button box collections I could make the flower rings the way I wanted to.

As you can see this means the ribbon isn’t disrupting the flower button but remains a prominent feature of the design. Even in the star ring, I tried to turn the ribbon into beams of light. A bit of a silly idea but works for me =]